


face it, tiger

by Rest



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-30
Updated: 2013-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-03 01:12:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1063904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rest/pseuds/Rest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The piece is going to be a profile on Michael Jordan Watson, a senior and the rare frat president who actually cares about the service aspect of Greek life. This weekend, he and the rest of his frat are doing Habitat for Humanity stuff in a part of town that even Peter, a lifelong New Yorker and Spider-Man, feels nervous in.</p><p>So yeah. Take pictures of some bros, and then more of one bro in particular, and head home. Very routine. Except for how his brain sort of stumbles when MJ strides over and introduces himself. And in this context, "stumbles" means that Peter stumbles over his own feet, his words, and his train of thought.</p><p>MJ is… well. Peter doesn't know what he is. He is shirtless. And sweaty. Not gross sweaty, he just… has a sheen, sort of. Peter honestly has no idea what he even says before he ducks behind his camera.</p>
            </blockquote>





	face it, tiger

**Author's Note:**

> Remember when Andrew Garfield made that comment about casting Michael B. Jordan as a love interest in TASM? Yeah.

Peter Parker starts at NYU when he is eighteen.

 

He's studying to be an engineer, because of his three main passions, it was really the only viable career path.

 

\-----

 

He nixes photojournalism early on. It's cool, when you get a chance to shoot for something people actually care about, but that's not too often and the work is unreliable and underpaid. Peter doesn't much care for unreliable these days, and he doubts 'underpaid' will ever be something he aims for.

 

\-----

 

Deciding against photojournalism leaves him with the choice between being Spider-Man full time, or going to school and helping the world in a more roundabout, but also maybe more impactful, way.

 

When he graduates high school, he's accepted his spot at NYU, but he still hasn't really chosen between it and Spider-Man. He plans on spending the summer obsessing over the choice, but Tony Stark takes it out of his hands.

 

Well, all of the Avengers, really.

 

In June, he mentioned offhand to Clint that he was still trying to decide whether or not to go to school, and that even if he does, he'll still have to choose between a real job and superhero stuff after he graduates. Clint responds in his usual stoic manner but also looks a little like he's trying to swallow a toothpick.

 

"I don't know, man, I would say school would… definitely be the way to go, at least."

 

Peter takes that under consideration for about two days. On the second day, Happy cruises up to his skating digs and whisks him away to "speak with Mr. Stark."

 

What it turns out to be is not just Mr. Stark but also Mr. Rogers and Ms. Romanov. The three stare him down silently until he gives in and speaks first.

 

"Uh, what's up, guys?"

 

"We hear you're considering being Spider-Man full-time," says Natasha. "We plan on persuading you to do otherwise."

 

Which, okay, is sort of a terrifying into coming from her, but the rest of the conversation is really civil and at the end he feels very secure in choosing to go to school and "get a real job" afterwards.

 

"It's not like real jobs aren't cool," Tony tells him earnestly. "Hell, when I'm not in the suit I practically have a real job. You can work with me! Take my job! Or, okay, Pepper wouldn't allow that, but you could still work for Stark Industries. Interning for me or Bruce, or like, R&D, or whatever. You're smart. We'll write you letters of rec for jobs and grad schools and stuff too, okay?"

 

"Uh--" stalls Peter. "That sounds amazing, actually, but I just--I feel like I should be doing something with this, I feel horrible and guilty at the thought of just standing by and letting stuff happen."

 

Tony's face loses some of its manic energy. "You know why I made the suit?"

 

"To, uh, escape the--" Peter starts, a little uncomfortable.

 

Tony waves his hand. "No, no. I mean, sure, I would have done it for that alone, but my motivation was to help the man trapped with me and to help take down the supervillain status bad guy keeping hold of us. You don't have to physically fight people to save others from harm, okay? You can do that a lot of ways. Someone with your skills should be using them to help, yeah, but that includes your brain. Use that to help people. Develop more energy-efficient cars. Do research on the HIV vaccine. These are incredible ways to help the world too.

 

Or, like, be a kindergarten teacher if you want to do that! It's also cool to just live your own life! Just don't quit school and get a real job afterwards. Stop trying to play in this sandbox."

 

Touching, Peter thinks wryly, but he's sold.

 

Cap steps in and tells him, "Look, son. You can't keep fighting like this. You're not trained in combat or rescue or reconnaissance. You endanger yourself and others by seeking out ways to get involved. I admire your spirit, but Tony's right--your help will be a lot more useful from the other end."

 

So, yeah, Peter gets it, and he agrees to scale it back to occasional appearances. Essentially they're limited to when he happens upon a crime in progress, or hears about something his skills are uniquely suited for--it's not every superhero who can pull a kid out of a car falling off a bridge. And the Avengers still call him in when they need backup or someone who can do what he can.

 

Peter feels a little bereft without the daily crime fighting routine at first, but after that he mostly feels relieved. He had definitely been, as Gwen had tactfully put it, "in over his head."

 

\-----

 

So, yeah, NYU. Fall semester goes by in a blur of oh-god-classes-are-hard and oh-god-I-have-to-pick-a-major. Once the spring semester rolls around, things get easier: he knows he has time to float around taking different STEM courses before settling on a specialty, he finally understand what is open when, and he and Wade-the-roommate have forged what some may even call a friendship. Aunt May still doesn't know about Spider-Man, and that's the way Peter likes it.

 

Oh, and he and Gwen have officially broken up.

 

\-----

 

When he and Gwen graduated, they kind of knew they were nearing the end of their relationship--Peter was crazy about her, but she was going to MIT and their relationship had been messy for a while, what with, ah, her dad and all.

 

Gwen had taken her Gwen-brain to the situation, looked at it like a problem and came up with a solution.

 

"We can break up at the end of the summer and feel weird and lost and pine for a long time and end up trying to rekindle something next summer only to break up again. Or, we could do long-distance and let nature run its course, so we fizzle out in our own time. Like relationship apoptosis."

 

He went along with it, because, well, it's hard to disagree with her scientist voice, and sure enough, they mutually agreed to end the romance stuff in late November. They still chat often and Skype weekly, because Gwen is basically the only friend Peter has who's his age and he's not going to let a little mutual awkwardness standing in the way of that.

 

\-----

 

Peter keeps up with photography in his spare time and he joins the student paper at Wade's encouragement.

 

("Dude," Wade had told him in September of their freshman year, "I totally get trying to be like, a responsible person and stuff, even if I'm not doing it I would never knock it. But you gotta do all the stuff you love, know what I'm saying?")

 

(Wade may have been a little high at that point, but so was Peter, so he was open to the suggestion, and when he sobered up and it still sounded like a good idea he went for it.)

 

By his sophomore year, he's a full-time staff photojournalist for the WSN. He's even more sure now that it's not the right career for him--way too much posturing, not nearly enough doing--but he enjoys it all the same. He feels very calm in a newsroom, amongst his equally gawky brethren. Unflappable.

 

So of course, photojournalism turns out to be what shakes things up.

 

\-----

 

It feels like a normal assignment. Go out, take pictures of Sigma Pi Phi members doing community service, email them to the layout guys, go home.

 

Then he gets there, and. Well.

 

The piece is going to be a profile on Michael Jordan Watson, a senior and the rare frat president who actually cares about the service aspect of Greek life. This weekend, he and the rest of his frat are doing Habitat for Humanity stuff in a part of town that even Peter, a lifelong New Yorker and _Spider-Man_ , feels nervous in.

 

So yeah. Take pictures of some bros, and then more of one bro in particular, and head home. Very routine. Except for how his brain sort of stumbles when MJ strides over and introduces himself. And in this context, "stumbles" means that Peter stumbles over his own feet, his words, and his train of thought.

 

MJ is… well. Peter doesn't know what he is. He is shirtless. And sweaty. Not gross sweaty, he just… has a sheen, sort of. Peter honestly has no idea what he even says before he ducks behind his camera.

 

The lens gives him focus, like it always does, and while he takes pictures (assuring MJ that he can just do what he was doing, candids are fine, and uh, he can put his shirt back on if he likes, to which MJ replied that he could, but that the pictures would get the frat more attention without a shirt interfering) he's calm. It's angles and lighting and perspective, not being unexpectedly tongue tied. But all too soon, that's over and he's forced to brave MJ's wide smile once more.

 

"You live on campus?" MJ asks him as he helps his frat brothers wrap up for the day.

 

Peter can feel his nose wrinkle up. "Yeah, I'm just a sophomore. Financial aid is better if you live in the dorms."

 

MJ whistles low and short. "Rough tradeoff."

 

"You have no idea," Peter agrees, warming up to the topic. "I'm contractually obligated to have a meal plan."

 

"Aw, but do they still have those little ice cream sandwich things?"

 

"Yeah, those are pretty great," Peter says, grinning sheepishly.

 

Somehow, Peter ends up tagging along with him on the way back, and MJ yells to him to "Have a nice night, Peter!" when they split ways.

 

\-----

 

The morning after the article runs, Peter's phone pings with an email.

 

_Hey, Peter. Want to thank you for your awesome photography. You should stop by our party tonight! I'll put you on the guest list._

_Best,_

_MJ Watson_

_President, Sigma Pi Phi_

_NYU Class of 2016_

 

"Wade, you going to the Sigma Pi Phi party tonight?"

 

"Aw, shucks, Pete," Wade starts. "You pulling a Sadie Hawkins? Asking me to the dance?" Then he takes in Peter's flat expression and changes his tone. "But, really, I am, you wanna tag along?"

 

Peter tries to contain his partying to a minimum but he can make an exception. "Yeah, I don't know, that frat guy I took pictures for says he put me on the list."

 

Wade's eyes get wide. "No! Wait, do you have pictures? Show him to me! Dish!" He emphasizes the last one with a too-rough two-handed shove at Peter's shoulders.

 

"It's not like that, I don't know. He just seemed nice."

 

Wade smacks him on the back of the head. "Show me."

 

Peter could blame his acquiescence on Wade's tendency to drive people insane with his persistence, but he kind of wants someone else to look at MJ, wants to know if others can tell there's something strange and new about this.

 

Wade doesn't seem to pick up on it, just chuckles a little darkly and tells Peter to "get it, man."

 

\-----

 

So there's a party.

 

Peter likes parties, thinks they're a good way to burn off that nervous "why does society think I'm an adult" energy.

 

Wade goes out way more than he does, but about half the time he brings his laptop with him and takes notes on his surroundings. Peter doesn't pretend to understand.

 

Wade is participatory this time, usually is when Peter is joining him, and finds them a giant Kings Cup game to join within ten minutes of getting in the door.

 

Peter spots MJ halfway through a nine (18th century authors) and does a dorky little wave over in his direction. Wade snorts at him.

 

To Peter's alarm, MJ not only waves back, indicating that he saw the dorky wave, but also heads over to their circle.

 

"You guys can make a rule exception for me to talk to Peter for a sec, yeah?" he asks, smiling broadly, and then whisks him away without waiting for a response.

 

"Again, man, thanks so much for doing the pictures. You have no idea what a disaster they were the last time Sig Pi was covered. Visibility is really important to us, we're trying to drum up attention for what we're doing."

 

"Oh, yeah, I mean, I was happy to. Doing an outdoor shoot is always fun. No problem."

 

"We're gonna be requesting you for any further articles, just a heads up."

 

"That sounds good."

 

\-----

 

From there, they get into a discussion about media, and like, visibility and personal intent that Peter would have been happy to stick with all night. MJ is technically in charge of the party, though, being the frat president, and pretty soon he has to run off to do damage control on some situation involving one person's vomit in another's potted plat.

 

He escorts Peter back to the game, though, slotting him neatly back in where he was and squeezing his shoulder before turning to leave.

 

\-----

 

Wade hooks up that night, as usual, but he doesn't stay past the act itself, which is also par for the course. (Once Peter asked Wade why he didn't try for a real relationship sometime, to which Wade responded that he "isn't emotionally ready to connect with someone like that." Peter has no idea if Wade is too mature for his own good or just full of shit.)

 

Peter spends the night drinking and doing the up-and-down bounding motion that passes for dancing in white twenty-something males. As they walk home together, Wade waxes lyrical about how gentlemanly MJ is.

 

"He accompanied you to your destination, man. I bet he would've-- _hic_ \--asked to walk you home if he wasn't all busy being practically middle-aged."

 

"You're walking me home, man," Peter argues. "Nothing special about it."

 

"Yeah, but I'm just walking you home. To our home. He would be _walking you home_."

 

"What, like, protecting my virtue?"

 

"You know it, baby. You know it."

 

When Wade is drunk, he mostly just sounds it--he slurs, hiccups, babbles. His decision-making skills and inhibitions are almost nonexistent when he's sober, so it's not a huge change. Peter, on the other hand, can embarrass himself pretty easily while even mildly buzzed. He gets clumsy in only the way a supernaturally graceful person can. He feels anxious more easily, and gets weepy if left alone. It's humiliating.

 

He also becomes… suggestible. Which in most cases just means he's going to end up thinking diner food sounds like an awesome idea the minute anyone else suggests it, but in this case means that some part of his brain is trying to lend credence to what Wade is saying.

 

 _It's possible, okay, now shut up_ , he tries to tell his brain. It doesn't listen.

 

\-----

 

Fortunately, he's distracted from his own brain's traitorous mumblings for the rest of the week. He has a nightmare of a sequencing lab due on Friday, and the Avengers bring him in to try to talk down Y'Androgg from causing widespread destruction on Earth.

 

Weirdly, the talking him down part actually works. He's immediately hostile to anyone who's hurt him, so he doesn't trust the rest of the Avengers at all--the second they saw him they tried to knock him out so they could send him cross-dimensions, and it didn't work--but he's a pretty reasonable guy once you make it clear you're harmless. Which, okay, Peter had to make that clear by not hitting back when Y'Androgg basically full-body slapped him, but it was kind of worthwhile anyway.

 

It seems Y'Androgg has some serious anger management issues. Tony asked why he hadn't just found an empty planet to go smashing around on, and he seemed genuinely to have not considered it before. Giants apparently aren't the brightest beings out there. So they helped him pick out a planet for his new stress-relief stomping grounds, and he went on his merry way.

 

Peter was way behind on his lab at that point, so he had to pull an all-nighter to finish it and hand it in. So, of course, as he leaves his professor's office, he literally runs into MJ. Or, not literally runs. MJ is sort of jogging. Peter is wandering slowly and fantasizing about the nap he's soon to take. But the "into" part is literal.

 

"Ahhhh!" Peter yells intelligibly as MJ starts to apologize.

 

"Oh, shit, Peter. You okay?" MJ asks, and tries to like--assess damage or something by running a hand along Peter's back. Which, first of all, MJ couldn't cause that much destruction, Peter know he's small but he's not that small, and second, Peter really wishes he hadn't done that, because the left side of Peter's body is a mass of bruises that haven't even begun to heal. Seriously, _slapped by a giant_.

 

He winces, and says, "No, hey, I'm fine, I'm just kind of out of it, I had this lab and pulled and all-nighter and there are bruises, so."

 

"An all-nighter gave you bruises?"

 

"No, shut up, to finish the lab," Peter whines.

 

MJ quirks an eyebrow at him. "Even weirder."

 

"Whatever! Just. I'm so tired. Who ever knows where their bruises come from? I want to sleep for a million years."

 

"Let me walk you back," MJ says, concerned and insistent, and Peter doesn't have the heart to say no.

 

MJ walks him all the way up to his door, which Peter stumbles through and onto his bed.

 

"Thanks," he calls out halfheartedly. By some standards, he's probably already entered a sleep cycle, he thinks distractedly.

 

"No problem, Peter. You gonna take off your shoes?"

 

"Nah, leave 'em, they'll stay quiet," Peter answers, or maybe only thinks loudly. MJ just smiles and closes the door. Thank god for automatic locks, is Peter's last thought before he hits total unconsciousness.

 

\-----

 

MJ apparently isn't put off enough by Peter's weird all-nighter to avoid him. He shows up at noon the next day with two breakfast burritos and says they're going to eat and watch Adventure Time in the grand tradition of overworked college student everywhere.

 

Peter waits for the little part of his brain that insists on all studying all the time to kick in. It doesn't, so he follows MJ back to the Sig Pi house.

 

In the process of throwing on public-appropriate clothing, he accidentally lets MJ see the giant gauze-covered spot on his ribs. Or, okay, not so much accidentally as "with calculated intent," because he knows bandages aren't sexy but he also knows his torso is… not bad looking, and he just, whatever. Shut up.

 

MJ whistles, low, when he sees them, and Peter blushes because he knows MJ isn't hitting on him but a guy can dream.

 

"You sure you don't need to go to the health center?"

 

"I got it, man," Peter mumbles as he works on shoving his shoes onto his feet.

 

MJ gives him a concerned look, but refrains from saying anything more.

 

\-----

 

The day is really good. They burn through seven or eight episodes. Sig Pi has a nice TV and a better sound system. Peter heads out early enough to get some solid studying in, and MJ walks him home. He gets a weird side-hug at the end of the night and blushes furiously at it.

 

\-----

 

Tony makes weird paternal calls to Peter with some regularity. They average out to one a week but sometimes he'll go three weeks without hearing from him and then the fourth week he'll get four different calls. It's Tony's version of functional. Peter doesn't try to understand it; hell, he doesn't even know if Tony's sober or drinking himself to sleep every night or what.

 

It feels good, no matter how flaky Tony is, to talk with an older guy about stuff. He can bitch about classes or ask him advice about to dress so it looks like he knows what he's doing.

 

The next time Tony calls, Peter tells him about MJ and asks for his advice. Tony laughs so hard Peter hangs up.

 

Peter decides to go for a run, burn off his frustration. He puts on his rattiest everything because he's planning to cover at least ten miles. Of course, that means he meets MJ on the steps leading up to his dorm.

 

"Oh! Hey, man, what are you doing here?"

 

MJ smiles, slow. "I was actually waiting for you. Can I, uh, talk to you for a minute?"

 

"For sure," Peter answers, all-too-aware of his gross getup. Whatever, it's not like it'll be the first time he's embarrassed himself.

 

"So," MJ starts. "Uh. I wasn't gonna do anything about this, I really wasn't, but--I just got into the Draper program, so I'll be here for like, three more years at least. It didn't make sense to start anything if I was just going to leave but this is my number one and I can afford it so I'm sticking around and, uh, I'd really like it if you'd go on a date with me."

 

Peter's brain stutters to a halt. Fortunately, his mouth goes on without him. "Yes! Yeah, definitely, absolutely. Hey, congratulations, man, that's awesome."

 

MJ steps up, closing the gap between them, and kisses Peter. It's slow and soft. To his great chagrin, Peter feels his dick twitch in his thin running shorts. When they pull apart, MJ's smiling at him, and Peter can't stop a grin from making its way across his face.

 

"Next Thurday?" MJ asks. "At four. Just coffee. No pressure, seriously. I just want to get to know you. And, yeah, do more of that, because. You know."

 

"Cool," Peter agrees, voice higher than he'd like it to be. "I'm just gonna--go back in, then, and--I was going to go for a run, but Wade's not in the room for another hour and that just happened, so I'd like to, uh--" he shuts himself up by slapping a hand across his mouth. He shakes his head at himself as he bounds up the stairs and on to the privacy of his room.

 

"I'll be here, Peter," MJ calls after him. He looks smug. It's disarmingly attractive on him.

 

Peter can't wait until Thursday.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is, I suppose, technically unfinished. I drafted it up right when I first started writing fic. I have since discovered that I lack the attention span to write the 60k rom-com this was intended to be, so I wrapped up what I have instead. I know lots of the details for this 'verse so if you have any questions I can answer them.


End file.
